Become an Optical Assistant

Learn why optical assisting is such as interesting job and how rewarding it can be to help people solve their vision problems. This course is a great way to start your career as it will help you better understand everything that's involved in the job and how you can become certified and licensed optical assistant.

Details

If you think you'd like to become an optical assistant, this is the course for you! You'll take a comprehensive look at the diverse world of optical assisting. You'll see why optometry is such an interesting field and how rewarding it can be to help people solve their vision problems.

You will be amazed to learn all the different places optical assistants can work! You'll cover optical assisting in private practice, healthcare clinics, the military, teaching facilities, and in retail sales. You'll discover the personal and professional skills needed to work in a front and back office and in an optical dispensary and lab. You will understand all the things optical assistants must know about frames, styles, lenses, contact lenses, and working with people. Along the way, you'll discover how the human eye works, and examine some common eye conditions. Finally, you will learn how to become certified and licensed, which will open up even more opportunities for you and identify you as an expert. This course is an ideal springboard for starting a career in this growing and ever-in-demand field!

Common eye problems cause millions of people to need glasses, contact lenses, vision therapy, or low vision aids. You'll also learn about common eye disorders and receive important tips on protecting the eyesight.

Take a look at front office optical assisting—a great career if you're a "people" person and a multi-tasker. Learn about becoming a goodwill ambassador, triage, and the ins and outs of scheduling patients efficiently.

Check out back office assisting if you're looking to perform hands-on patient care. Learn about taking a patient's medical history, the tests used to gather vision data, and two specialty areas in back office assisting: contact lens fitting and surgical assisting.

Look at the best ways to make people feel welcome, respected, and well treated at every step of their visit to a doctor's office or retail store. You'll also get great tips for smoothing the waters if problems arise.

Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Instructor

Dr. Beverly Smith is a Doctor of Optometry and has been in private practice for more than 24 years. She also holds a Master of Business Administration and founded a consulting firm that helps new practitioners start and manage their own eye care practices. Throughout her career, Smith has taught many future opticians, certified paraoptometrics, and fellow optometrists. Her work has been published in the professional journals New O.D. and Women in Optometry.

Reviews

I really enjoyed this course it is easy to understand, simple and it got right to the point. You learn everything you need to know so quickly and before you know it you are finished with the lesson. Then you are so excited about what you have learned, that you just want to start the next lesson right away so you can learn even more.

This was a very interactive course. Although I am familiar with some of the info, I still learned a lot. The matching charts were very helpful too. I would take it again and would recommend it to anyone going into this field.

This is my first experience with an online course and it was a wonderful one. I would do it again, I recommend it to anyone. Great!

I normally don't like long courses and hours to study... Plus it was a nice pace for older students that haven't had a course in a while... You have encouraged me to continue on with my goals... in this exciting new career. Thank you Patricia

This course was an excellent way to expand knowledge in the optical assisting field. Its also a great way to get a head start if you're interested in certification or licensing. I enjoyed this class and recommend it to others.

This is one of the only beginners courses I have found online for optical assisting and I have learned a lot. It was very interesting and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this field.

The course itself and its content were fantastic. I learned much more than I had expected. The Instructor is knowledgeable of the course subject matter. I am ready to pursue a career in this field and I will recommend this course to others

I enjoyed this class more than any of the others I've taken on-line from a variety of schools. The instructor was EXCELLENT!!!

I'm an optical manager at a retail optical chain. This is an awesome home study class for any one new in the field or for anyone who need to polish up on their optics. I will recommend that all my employees take this class as well as the district.

I truly enjoyed this course, I am so happy I found it. It gave me a greater understanding of the responsibilities, requirements and vocabulary needed for this field. It was just the right length, not overwhelming, and the format was easy.